Ria

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT RIA - PAGE 4

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has detained 25 Ukrainians it suspected of preparing attacks in the southern and central part of the country, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement on Thursday. The detained, who were reported as being members of ultra-nationalist movements, were planning attacks between March 14 and 17, it said, in Russia's Rostov, Volgograd, Tver, Orel, Belgorod, Kalmykia and Tatarstan regions. The press service of the Ukrainian state security service (SBU)

MOSCOW (Reuters) - He's had cheeseburgers with U.S. President Barack Obama, palled around with ex-Hollywood movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger and gushed with praise on a visit to Silicon Valley. On Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev encountered another American phenomenon: the cowboy. He did so not in the United States but in the western Russian region of Bryansk, where some American cattle wranglers are working to help train Russians to develop the domestic beef industry.

MOSCOW, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Speak Russian or be silent. Nationalist lawmakers want to ban foreign languages at the workplace - a rule that would leave some foreigners speechless, from menial labourers from former Soviet states to Western business executives in suits and ties. Two deputies from flamboyant ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party introduced a bill on Thursday that would bar Russians and foreigners from speaking foreign languages on the job during working hours, state-run RIA news agency reported.

Pro-Moscow rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine called on Monday for their region to become part of Russia after declaring victory in a weekend referendum on self-rule. The separatist region of Donetsk appealed to Moscow to consider its absorption into Russia, a move that would echo the annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula after a similar referendum earlier this year. The call is likely to anger the government in Kiev and Western nations that accuse Russia of stirring up unrest in the east following the overthrow of a pro-Moscow president in February by protesters demanding closer links with Europe.

If it weren't so terrifying, if I had the guts, I would have written it already. There have been times when the thought tore through my brain, but I chased it out, shook it frantically away, couldn't move myself to sit down and face the possibility, spelled out on paper. Once, not long ago, I actually turned on my computer and started to trudge to the place I most feared, but the tears streamed down before I'd hit three keys. I couldn't get where I was trying to go. It was as if putting words to the what-if might make it happen, and that I couldn't bear.

MINSK/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Belarus detained the head of Russia's Uralkali , the world's top potash producer, and threatened to seize its assets in the country on Monday, drawing a fierce rebuke from Moscow in an escalating dispute over the collapse of a cartel. Vladislav Baumgertner was detained on suspicion of abusing his position and official powers over Uralkali's decision to quit the Belarusian Potash Co (BPC) joint trading venture, according to investigators in Belarus. It is the first time a top manager of a Russian firm has been detained in Belarus, run since 1994 by President Alexander Lukashenko, who styles himself as "Europe's last dictator".

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned Russia on Wednesday that undermining a May 25 presidential election in Ukraine would bring greater costs for Russia - already subject to Western sanctions since its annexation of Crimea. Biden arrived in Bucharest on Tuesday as part of a U.S. campaign to reassure east European allies, including ex-communist Romania which joined NATO a decade ago, of America's backing in the West's confrontation with Russia over Ukraine. "(We)

BRUSSELS/MOSCOW (Reuters) - The European Union sought to reassure Russia on Friday that a free-trade pact with Ukraine was not aimed at hurting Moscow but rejected calls to postpone its implementation, offering more talks instead. In a historic shift away from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova last month signed political and free-trade agreements with the European Union that have been at the center of months of conflict and hundreds of deaths. Russia warned of "grave consequences" following the signing of the accords, which undermine Moscow's ability to create its own trade bloc with the former Soviet states, and has taken what Brussels says are retaliatory steps by blocking Moldovan wine and European meat exports.